Bouvier counter-attacks: In the latest round in the bitter battle between “freeport king” Yves Bouvier and his former client, the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, Bouvier has scored a distinct hit. A Singaporean court has lifted the worldwide freeze on Bouvier’s assets, while also expressing doubts about some of the allegations made by Rybolovlev’s side.

Britain has a ‘hidden’ art collection worth £3.5bn: The government and local authorities own art worth at least £3.5 billion, but only a tiny fraction is on display, research from a pressure group claims. Just 3% of the collection is available for the public to view, said the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

Revision of the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act will impact art dealers: The revised Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (“AMLA”) affects art dealers. The scope of the AMLA was extended to include “private individuals and legal entities that trade in goods in a commercial capacity and accept cash payments (professional dealers).”

Booming Online Market for Dada Forgeries: The art market is currently flooded by low-cost fakes bringing big revenues for criminal gangs. Forgers systematically target non-experts by offering works by popular artists in easily-copied genres, such as Dada, for bargain prices. In Germany, several such forgeries are systematically placed into online auctions. And while few find their way into reputable auction houses, the systems of forgery detection in place at major houses means that the majority of fakes end up on eBay.

Ethiopian loot still in Britain: Why are the remains of Prince Alemayehu still in Britain? After years of requests, the monarchs have responded either by refusal or silence. But perhaps the time has come to do the honourable thing and return the remains to the country with the most obvious historical and cultural connection to them. The same was done in 2002 when the French returned the remains of the horrendously-treated Saartjie Baartmen to South Africa.

Irish Arts Minister asks Department of Finance to consider changing tax regulations: Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys has asked the Department of Finance to consider changing the tax regulations to incentivise donors to purchase works of art from the Beit collection. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Beit Foundation informed Ms Humphreys that it will have to sell several works of art before the end of the year, or receive State support in order to avert the closure of Russborough House.

A Chicago family’s search for art seized during the Nazi era: Jona Goldschmidt is embarking on his own Monuments Men story, searching for art his paternal grandparents were forced to relinquish by Germany’s Nazi Party during the Holocaust. In coming months, he will make a claim with Art Recovery Group of London and New York for a portrait owned by his grandparents, “Tyrolean Woman with Cat” by Lovis Corinth, which showed up in an auction a few years ago. The buyer and seller were kept anonymous.

Sotheby’s to auction former owner’s $500m art collection: Works by Modigliani, Picasso and Thomas Gainsborough, owned by the former owner of Sotheby’s, are to be sold by the auction house later this year. Alfred Taubman’s collection comprises more than 500 works and is valued at more than $500m (£328m). Taubman, who died in April aged 91, was a billionaire real estate developer who bought the UK auction house in 1983. He revived the company’s fortunes but was later jailed for conspiring to fix commissions on art sales.

The $4.99 thrift store painting that turned out to be a Lorenzo Hurtado Segovia original: In late July, artist Javier Ramirez went to a thrift store in Reseda and spotted a somewhat surreal painting. The image of a little girl wearing what appeared to be a wrestling mask appealed to him so much he snapped a picture of it with his phone. But he didn’t buy the painting, even though it was priced at just $4.99.

Impact of China’s slowdown on art market: What impact will China’s slowdown have on the red-hot contemporary art market? That might not seem like an obvious question until one considers that for emerging-market investors, art has become a critical tool for facilitating capital flight and hiding wealth. These investors have become a major factor in the art market’s spectacular price bubble of the past several years.

Art and money laundering: The notoriously opaque and largely unregulated art market faces greater scrutiny as financial authorities discover it has become the ideal money-laundering tool, an art conference in London heard on Thursday. The relative ease of laundering illicit funds through art dealers and auction houses is thought to have contributed to the spectacular rise in the value of fine art in recent years.

Holocaust-era assets: In 1935, with the Second World War on the horizon, Nazis forced Jewish-German art dealer Max Stern to sell his collection of 400 paintings. In the eight decades since then, the works have scattered around the world, making their way into museums and the hands of private collectors. As his artwork was relocated around the globe, Stern also made his way out of Germany, eventually moving to Canada, where he became one of the most prominent art collectors in the country. He died in 1987, without reclaiming a single painting—or receiving a penny from the forced sale. But now, art hunter Willi Korte is on a mission to recover Stern’s collection and honour the man who became one of Canada’s most important art collectors.

Five Motunui Panels at last returned to NZ tribe: The five Motunui panels that had been illegally exported from New Zealand back in the 1970s have finally made the journey back to the tribal lands from which they came.

Easing art exports a win for dealers: Australian art dealers and collectors who have agitated for years for simpler export rules are poised for a win from the review of the nation’s Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act now under way.

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